Hans van Manen, In Memoriam
18/12/2025
Hans van Manen, one of the most significant choreographers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, a master of contemporary ballet and a central figure in world dance, passed away on 17 December 2025 at the age of 93. For more than six decades, he shaped the face of modern ballet through a distinctive choreographic language rooted in clarity of structure, refined simplicity and extraordinary musicality.
Hans van Manen created more than 150 choreographic works, including ballets for television, which are performed worldwide to this day. Although he often described his works as abstract, they were always fundamentally about people – about relationships, tensions, emotions and subtle psychological nuances, expressed with surgical precision of movement. As he himself said: “In my ballets, I strive for less and less movement. Every superfluous step has to be chucked out.”
Born in 1932 in Nieuwer-Amstel (now Amstelveen), Hans van Manen danced with, among others, the Ballet of the Netherlands Opera and Roland Petit’s Ballets de Paris. He made his choreographic debut in 1955 with Olé, Olé, la Margarita. He was closely associated with Nederlands Dans Theater and Dutch National Ballet, where he served at various times as resident and later senior choreographer. He remained active in the rehearsal studio until his final years, personally shaping the definitive form of his works.
Hans van Manen’s oeuvre has become part of the repertoire of more than one hundred ballet companies worldwide. He also granted the National Theatre Ballet permission to perform several of his choreographies, including Déjà vu, Frank Bridge Variations, Sarcasmen, Solo and Variations for Two Couples, enriching the company’s repertoire with landmark works of the international ballet canon.
For his exceptional contribution to the arts, Hans van Manen received numerous prestigious awards, among them the Erasmus Prize, the Prix Benois de la Danse for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Prix à la Carrière and the German Musikpreis. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the Netherlands Lion and Commander of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and was awarded the Honorary Medal for Arts and Science of the Order of the House of Orange.
Hans van Manen remains one of the most influential figures in the history of ballet. His work—precise, restrained and profoundly human—will continue to inspire future generations of dancers and audiences around the world.
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